scholarly journals The contrasting effects of thermodynamic and dynamic processes on East Asian summer monsoon precipitation during the Last Glacial Maximum: a data-model comparison

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yong Sun ◽  
Haibin Wu ◽  
Masa Kageyama ◽  
Gilles Ramstein ◽  
Laurent Z. X. Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Data Model ◽  
Moisture Transport ◽  
Model Comparison ◽  
Asian Summer Monsoon ◽  
Dynamic Processes ◽  
Precipitation Increase ◽  
Asian Summer ◽  
Dynamic Enhancement ◽  
The Last Glacial Maximum ◽  
The Last Glacial

AbstractThe Last Glacial Maximum (LGM; 21 ka BP) was the most recent glacial period when the global ice sheet volume was at a maximum. Therefore, the LGM can be used to investigate atmospheric dynamics under a climate that differed significantly from the present. This study quantitatively compares pollen records of boreal summer (June–July–August) precipitation with the PMIP3 LGM simulations. The data-model comparison shows an overall agreement on a drier than pre-industrial East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) climate. Nevertheless, 17 out of 55 records show a regional precipitation increase that is also simulated over the additional land mass area due to sea level drop. The thermodynamic and dynamic responses are analyzed to explain a drier LGM EASM as a combination of these two antagonistic mechanisms. Relatively low atmospheric moisture content was the main thermodynamic control on the lower LGM (relative to pre-industrial levels) EASM precipitation amounts in both the reconstructions and the models. In contrast, two dynamic processes in relation to stationary eddy activity act to increase EASM precipitation regionally in records and simulations, respectively. Precipitation increase in records is explained by dynamic enhancement of the horizontal moisture transport, while dynamic enhancement of the vertical moisture transport leads to simulated precipitation increase over the specific region where landmass was exposed during LGM along continental coastlines of China due to significant drop in sea level (relative to pre-industrial levels). Overall, the opposing effects of thermodynamic and dynamic processes on precipitation during the LGM provide a means to reconcile the spatial heterogeneity of recorded precipitation changes in sign, although data-model comparison suggests that the simulated dynamic wetting mechanism is too weak relative to the thermodynamic drying mechanism over data-model disagreement regions.

scholarly journals Oxygen stable isotopes during the Last Glacial Maximum climate: perspectives from data–model (<i>i</i>LOVECLIM) comparison

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 1939-1955 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Caley ◽  
D. M. Roche ◽  
C. Waelbroeck ◽  
E. Michel
Keyword(s):  
Last Glacial Maximum ◽  
Data Model ◽  
Model Comparison ◽  
Greenland Ice Sheet ◽  
Deep Ocean ◽  
Glacial Maximum ◽  
Last Glacial ◽  
The North ◽  
The Last Glacial Maximum ◽  
The Last Glacial

Abstract. We use the fully coupled atmosphere–ocean three-dimensional model of intermediate complexity iLOVECLIM to simulate the climate and oxygen stable isotopic signal during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 21 000 years). By using a model that is able to explicitly simulate the sensor (δ18O), results can be directly compared with data from climatic archives in the different realms. Our results indicate that iLOVECLIM reproduces well the main feature of the LGM climate in the atmospheric and oceanic components. The annual mean δ18O in precipitation shows more depleted values in the northern and southern high latitudes during the LGM. The model reproduces very well the spatial gradient observed in ice core records over the Greenland ice sheet. We observe a general pattern toward more enriched values for continental calcite δ18O in the model at the LGM, in agreement with speleothem data. This can be explained by both a general atmospheric cooling in the tropical and subtropical regions and a reduction in precipitation as confirmed by reconstruction derived from pollens and plant macrofossils. Data–model comparison for sea surface temperature indicates that iLOVECLIM is capable to satisfyingly simulate the change in oceanic surface conditions between the LGM and present. Our data–model comparison for calcite δ18O allows investigating the large discrepancies with respect to glacial temperatures recorded by different microfossil proxies in the North Atlantic region. The results argue for a strong mean annual cooling in the area south of Iceland and Greenland between the LGM and present (> 6 °C), supporting the foraminifera transfer function reconstruction but in disagreement with alkenones and dinocyst reconstructions. The data–model comparison also reveals that large positive calcite δ18O anomaly in the Southern Ocean may be explained by an important cooling, although the driver of this pattern is unclear. We deduce a large positive δ18Osw anomaly for the north Indian Ocean that contrasts with a large negative δ18Osw anomaly in the China Sea between the LGM and the present. This pattern may be linked to changes in the hydrological cycle over these regions. Our simulation of the deep ocean suggests that changes in δ18Osw between the LGM and the present are not spatially homogeneous. This is supported by reconstructions derived from pore fluids in deep-sea sediments. The model underestimates the deep ocean cooling thus biasing the comparison with benthic calcite δ18O data. Nonetheless, our data–model comparison supports a heterogeneous cooling of a few degrees (2–4 °C) in the LGM Ocean.

scholarly journals Constraining the Last Glacial Maximum climate by data-model (<i>i</i>LOVECLIM) comparison using oxygen stable isotopes

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Caley ◽  
D. M. Roche ◽  
C. Waelbroeck ◽  
E. Michel
Keyword(s):  
Last Glacial Maximum ◽  
Data Model ◽  
Model Comparison ◽  
Greenland Ice Sheet ◽  
Deep Ocean ◽  
Glacial Maximum ◽  
Last Glacial ◽  
The North ◽  
The Last Glacial Maximum ◽  
The Last Glacial

Abstract. We use the fully coupled atmosphere-ocean three-dimensional model of intermediate complexity iLOVECLIM to simulate the climate and oxygen stable isotopic signal during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 21 000 yr). By using a model that is able to explicitly simulate the sensor (δ18O), results can be directly compared with data from climatic archives in the different realms. Our results indicate that iLOVECLIM reproduces well the main feature of the LGM climate in the atmospheric and oceanic components. The annual mean δ18O in precipitation shows more depleted values in the northern and southern high latitudes during the LGM. The model reproduces very well the spatial gradient observed in ice core records over the Greenland ice-sheet. We observe a general pattern toward more enriched values for continental calcite δ18O in the model at the LGM, in agreement with speleothem data. This can be explained by both a general atmospheric cooling in the tropical and subtropical regions and a reduction in precipitation as confirmed by reconstruction derived from pollens and plant macrofossils. Data-model comparison for sea surface temperature indicates that iLOVECLIM is capable to satisfyingly simulate the change in oceanic surface conditions between the LGM and present. Our data-model comparison for calcite δ18O allows investigating the large discrepancies with respect to glacial temperatures recorded by different microfossil proxies in the North Atlantic region. The results argue for a trong mean annual cooling between the LGM and present (> 6°C), supporting the foraminifera transfer function reconstruction but in disagreement with alkenones and dinocyst reconstructions. The data-model comparison also reveals that large positive calcite δ18O anomaly in the Southern Ocean may be explained by an important cooling, although the driver of this pattern is unclear. We deduce a large positive δ18Osw anomaly for the north Indian Ocean that contrasts with a large negative δ18Osw anomaly in the China Sea between the LGM and present. This pattern may be linked to changes in the hydrological cycle over these regions. Our simulation of the deep ocean suggests that changes in δ18Osw between the LGM and present are not spatially homogenous. This is supported by reconstructions derived from pore fluids in deep-sea sediments. The model underestimates the deep ocean cooling thus biasing the comparison with benthic calcite δ18O data. Nonetheless, our data-model comparison support a heterogeneous cooling of few degrees (2–4°C) in the LGM Ocean.

scholarly journals Revisiting the Physical Mechanisms of East Asian Summer Monsoon Precipitation Changes During the Mid-Holocene: A Data–model Comparison

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yong Sun ◽  
Haibin Wu ◽  
Gilles Ramstein ◽  
Bo Liu ◽  
Yan Zhao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
Summer Monsoon ◽  
Data Model ◽  
East Asian Summer Monsoon ◽  
Model Comparison ◽  
Asian Summer Monsoon ◽  
East Asian ◽  
Asian Summer ◽  
Dynamic Components ◽  
Precipitation Changes

Abstract The mid-Holocene (MH; 6 ka) is one of the benchmark periods for the Paleoclimate Modeling Intercomparison Project (PMIP) and provides a unique opportunity to study monsoon dynamics and orbital forcing (i.e., mostly precession) that differ significantly from the present day. We conducted a data–model comparison along with a dynamic analysis to investigate monsoonal (i.e., East Asian summer monsoon; EASM) precipitation changes over East Asia during the MH. We used the three phases of the PMIP simulations for the MH, and quantitatively compared the model results with pollen-based climate records. The data–model comparison shows an overall increase in precipitation, except for a local decrease in EASM precipitation during the MH. Decomposition of the moisture budget into thermodynamic, dynamic components and co-variations in both allowed us to assess the relative role of thermodynamic and dynamic components in controlling EASM precipitation during the MH, and to investigate the precipitation changes obtained from pollen records in terms of physical processes. We show that the dynamic effect, rather than the thermodynamic effect, is the dominant control in increased EASM precipitation during the MH in both the proxy records and models. The dynamic increase in precipitation results mainly from the enhancement of horizontal monsoonal moisture transport that is caused by intensified stationary eddy horizontal circulation over East Asia. In addition, a cloud cooling effect reduced the thermodynamic contribution to the increase in EASM precipitation during the MH.

A data-model comparison pinpoints Holocene spatiotemporal pattern of East Asian summer monsoon

2021 ◽  
Vol 261 ◽  
pp. 106911
Author(s):  
Haiwei Zhang ◽  
Xu Zhang ◽  
Yanjun Cai ◽  
Ashish Sinha ◽  
Christoph Spötl ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Summer Monsoon ◽  
Data Model ◽  
East Asian Summer Monsoon ◽  
Model Comparison ◽  
Asian Summer Monsoon ◽  
East Asian ◽  
Spatiotemporal Pattern ◽  
Asian Summer

scholarly journals Warming-induced northwestward migration of the East Asian monsoon rain belt from the Last Glacial Maximum to the mid-Holocene

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (43) ◽  
pp. 13178-13183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shiling Yang ◽  
Zhongli Ding ◽  
Yangyang Li ◽  
Xu Wang ◽  
Wenying Jiang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Loess Plateau ◽  
East Asian Summer Monsoon ◽  
Asian Summer Monsoon ◽  
East Asian ◽  
Rain Belt ◽  
Monsoon Rain ◽  
Asian Summer ◽  
The Last Glacial Maximum ◽  
The Last Glacial

Glacial–interglacial changes in the distribution of C3/C4 vegetation on the Chinese Loess Plateau have been related to East Asian summer monsoon intensity and position, and could provide insights into future changes caused by global warming. Here, we present δ13C records of bulk organic matter since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) from 21 loess sections across the Loess Plateau. The δ13C values (range: –25‰ to –16‰) increased gradually both from the LGM to the mid-Holocene in each section and from northwest to southeast in each time interval. During the LGM, C4 biomass increased from <5% in the northwest to 10–20% in the southeast, while during the mid-Holocene C4 vegetation increased throughout the Plateau, with estimated biomass increasing from 10% to 20% in the northwest to >40% in the southeast. The spatial pattern of C4 biomass in both the LGM and the mid-Holocene closely resembles that of modern warm-season precipitation, and thus can serve as a robust analog for the contemporary East Asian summer monsoon rain belt. Using the 10–20% isolines for C4 biomass in the cold LGM as a reference, we derived a minimum 300-km northwestward migration of the monsoon rain belt for the warm Holocene. Our results strongly support the prediction that Earth's thermal equator will move northward in a warmer world. The southward displacement of the monsoon rain belt and the drying trend observed during the last few decades in northern China will soon reverse as global warming continues.

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